Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to social network content aggregation and more particularly to presenting social network updates in a user interface.
Description of the Related Art
Social networking refers to the electronic aggregation of social relations among individuals who share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. A social networking service generally provides for a representation of each participant, often referred to as a “profile”, one or more connections to other participants in the network, as well as other logical functions operating upon those connections. Social networking services generally are provided by way of the World Wide Web (“Web”). The user interface to a Web-based social networking service typically provides controls allowing users to manage respectively different public profiles, to manage respectively different lists of other end connected users, and most importantly, to view status updates and other content produced by or in association with the connected users.
Generally, status updates and other content produced by or in association with the connections of an user are presented in a stream. Classical terms for the stream include a wall, timeline or feed. As such, a review of the stream will reveal to the user the contemporaneous goings-on with a social network of connections of the user. For social networks of limited connections, or for social networks of limited updates, ascertaining the state of the social network is as simple as perusing the stream. However, for larger social networks, or for networks of particularly dense streams, the user bears the risk of missing content due to the sheer volume of entries in the stream. This phenomena has been referred to as “banner blindness”.
Banner blindness is a phenomenon in the study of human factors in which visitors to a Web site consciously or subconsciously ignore banner-like information and other visually presented advertisements. Banner blindness as a phenomenon has been recognized outside the context of online advertising in connection with a simple overflow of disparately sourced content on a single Web page. In the context of social networking, a stream of status updates that is voluminous and consumes a substantial portion of a page can result in banner blindness just as if the status updates were banner advertisements. Further, the requirement to scroll through or page through a multiplicity of different entries in a feed can result in the overlooking of important entries—just as in banner blindness.